Abstract This essay explores some of the pedagogical issues surrounding the teaching of literature in foreign-language contexts. Sharing the concerns of genre theorists (Johns, Swales, Paltridge and others), who have contended that communicative and learner-centered approaches have not well served the development of academic literacies, the essay begins with an assessment of the discourse and…

Abstract This paper outlines research conducted on a sophomore content-based Media English course taught at two private universities in Japan. The genesis of the course was informed by the belief that, as Western culture has saturated global media environments, attempting to bring an analysis of media into the Japanese classroom was of paramount importance. Because…

Abstract1 Over the last thirty years much of the emphasis in literary critical discourse has been on the social processes behind canon formation. Theoretical viewpoints informed by feminism, post-colonialism, as well as the rise of cultural studies, have altered the kinds of engagement with literature demanded from within and by academic institutions. These re-readings and…

The writers/teachers/researchers whose works are included in the second issue of Lit Matters make important claims about learning with complex, challenging texts. The articles included here show that approaches to teaching, thinking and working with texts differ as widely as the types of texts do. What lies at the center of these articles, and comes…

Abstract Zigzagging across literacy, the literary and literature, breakthrough and breakdown, cracking times and the crack-up, processes of becoming, transformation and dead-ends, I endeavour to introduce the ‘image’ of literature developed by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995). As we shall see, reading and writing literature will be considered a question of transformation or becoming –…

Abstract The dual need for Japanese students to understand the English language and comprehend the European storytelling tradition makes teaching literature a multi-faceted challenge. The subtleties of language use, particularly literary imagery and stylistic devices that convey narrative perspective, dramatic tension, and mood, are often lost to the more functional elements of comprehension. One way…

Introduction In considering the approach of teaching literature in the second-language classroom, the dichotomy of literature as subject and literature as resource becomes less distinct. Literature as subject involves the analysis of written work based on artistic merit. Conversely, literature as resource tends to eschew the artistic elements of the written word and instead seeks…

Abstract This chapter aims to give an overview of the current uncertain state of English-language literature teaching within tertiary education in Japan. Interviews with Japanese and non-Japanese (native) literature lecturers explain what is happening in classrooms, feedback from publishers indicates what students are reading, and a small-scale survey of university students reveals how they feel…

The seven authors whose works make up the first issue of Lit Matters focus on learning as a meaningful and transformative experience. The passion and confidence they exude in their articles show not only how deeply they are committed to teaching literary texts, but also how that commitment can be turned into practical activities that…